Soane Museum competition / 2014
Mausoleum
A look back at one of our projects from 2014. “Memorial to Lost Concentration” was shortlisted in a competition organized by The Soane Museum and Bompass and Parr. Our entry was 3D printed and auctioned by Christies (for a charitable cause). The proposal was featured in the exhibition Monumental Masonry at the Soane Museum. The project was also featured in the Financial Times amongst other publications.
Memorial to Lost Concentration commemorates a time before constant media bombardment from one’s desk, handbag or pocket, a time when the simple act of taking the phone off the hook would allow one peace and space, to allow minds to wander freely and be the masters of their own conscious destinies. The memorial is a place for both outward and inward contemplation and solace. The tomb itself has a secondary function as a large signal blocker – intended to provide a safe haven of quiescence within which one can exist alone, only with one’s thoughts, to contemplate the profound. Built upon the mound of an inverted step-well that visitors must transverse to the upper plane, the main tomb stands as the final, focal tier. The internal element of the tomb’s nave is lit by an ocular hole, a sundial that illuminates the space in an ongoing ebb and flow, punctuated only by the passage of day into night and night back into day. This is a place intended for the briefest contemplation of silence – as one leaves the tomb, one returns to the cognizance of daily life.